CHAPTER 1357: CHAPTER 1357: LI XIANG

"Hurry up and finish washing these dishes, and then wash those vegetables over there. Can’t you see we’re busy now? You better move faster. If you keep dawdling like this, I’ll dock your pay." The boss, with a face full of flab, pointed at Li Xiang, even tapping him twice with the greasy towel on his shoulder.

Li Xiang’s hands were buried in greasy dirty water, and the cracks on his fingers hurt.

In the middle of winter, the boss didn’t allow hot water, and his hands were already suffering from frostbite.

The pain was excruciating, but he knew that if he didn’t hurry to wash these dishes, the boss might not let him have dinner tonight.

He had been working at this place for half a year.

When he first came here, it was purely out of a moment of bravery.

The newspapers, television, and even Aunt Feng all said how advanced and wonderful Modu was.

It was only after he arrived here that he realized those wonderful things do exist, but not for him.

The money he brought wasn’t nearly enough to support him living here.

A 14-year-old child is still underage, and no decent place would employ him.

He couldn’t produce any identification card or any documentation.

He couldn’t even rent a place to stay.

After lingering around train stations and parks for several months, he had no other choice left; his pockets were already completely empty.

Only then did Li Xiang find a job with this boss.

The boss ran a small restaurant, which was doing well, but as it was a private restaurant, he didn’t care too much about regulations.

The boss made it very clear to him: room and board included, 200 yuan a month.

For him, even though this salary was much lower than the market rate, he knew he couldn’t find any place that would take him as he was.

To have enough food to eat and a place to stay, he had no choice but to work here.

The restaurant may look small, but its business was good, busy from dawn till dusk, selling breakfast early in the morning, lunch at midday, and not closing until eleven or twelve at night.

He was the only odd-job worker in the store.

He had to do almost everything: wash dishes, wash vegetables, sweep the floor, mop the floor, and even help clean up the dishes on the tables outside.

Whenever the boss bought groceries, he had to carry them inside.

He ate less but worked more than others, yet the boss still nagged at him all day long.

Li Xiang also wanted to leave this place.

But the boss said that the salary would only be settled at the end of the year, and if he didn’t work until then, he would leave empty-handed.

He had to endure it or else he would work for nothing for the year.

Once he got those two thousand yuan, he planned to go back to the provincial capital.

Modu may seem glamorous, but it didn’t offer him any kindness.

The provincial capital was where he had lived for over ten years; he was familiar with many things, at least his classmates and friends were there.

He also wanted to go back and visit. How were his father and mother doing now?

Although he knew they must be divorced, in his heart, he hoped that he could go back, and maybe one of them would let him live with them.

In these days away from home, he suddenly realized that he had no skills, was so young, had no education, no ID, nothing at all; surviving here seemed nearly impossible.

Just like the boss in front of him only used him to save money.

Only he knew how miserably he was being used, working day and night without even a shred of dignity.

He regretted it and wanted to go back to school.

He hadn’t even graduated from middle school, and he had asked around in the factories here, but they wanted workers who at least graduated from middle school.

They also required them to be adults.

This experience deeply taught him a lesson, making him realize how happy his previous environment was, all thanks to his mother.

The outside world is not as he imagined, where birds could freely soar across the limitless sky.

What he could do was truly limited.

Those details he never noticed before, suddenly became magnified infinitely in his mind.

The things his mother did for them daily: laundry, cooking, and every day when they came home, hot meals awaited them.

Clean clothes, even when he went to tutoring classes, his mother always prepared change and everything he needed to go out.

Even when he looked down on his mother, she never complained, ungrudgingly doing everything, including taking care of his two younger sisters.

His fingers numbly transferred the dishes from the icy water to another sink.

His hand slipped, and a plate shattered.

He hurriedly crouched down to pick up the pieces.

Behind him, on his head, and on his back, someone smacked him heavily a few times.

"What on earth are you doing? I’m employing you as if I’m being penalized. You tell me, what can you do besides eat? Even such simple work as washing dishes, you managed to break one! Do you know how much these dishes cost? Hurry up and clean it up, I’m telling you, this dish will be deducted from your salary.

You little rascal, I’m hiring you out of the goodness of my heart, but now look at this. If I’d known you were all about eating and not working, I wouldn’t have wanted you no matter what."

The chubby boss behind him hit him a few more times with a towel.

Li Xiang felt a pain in his hand, and he saw a shard of porcelain embedded in his palm.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

But he knew the boss wouldn’t pity him because being hurt only meant he wouldn’t have to work.

He swept all the shards on the ground into the trash can, then casually found a band-aid to cover his finger and continued washing dishes.

If he didn’t finish this work today, he wouldn’t get dinner.

Even though the boss’s leftover food was his dinner each day, even so, the boss wouldn’t let him eat his fill.

Every day, the boss found various excuses to dock his food rations.

If he didn’t hurry to finish this work now, he would probably go to bed hungry tonight.

They said room and board were included, but that meant sleeping on the tables in the store after pushing them together overnight.

The food he got was the restaurant’s leftovers, to be blunt.

Now he finally understood how good home was.

Every day his mother prepared delicious meals, tidied up the house, and never once did they have to worry about anything. Now thinking back to all the things he dismissed back then, they seemed like luxuries to him now.

Li Xiang, in a daze, wondered why? Why was he so blind back then, only listening to his father, uncle, and aunt’s words, never seriously thinking about what his mother had done over the years?

In his memories, his mother had always silently watched over him and his siblings, never having any dealings with anyone outside, let alone with any other men.

All her heart and effort was focused solely on the three of them.

And how did he repay his mother? With cruel, angry curses and scornful, mocking glances.

Why didn’t the heavens strike him down as the unfilial son he was back then?